Revisiting Segmentation: Two More Improvements in Adobe Analytics

In May, we offered up the biggest change to digital analytics segmentation since SiteCatalyst v15 in May, when we brought you sequential and time-between segmentation, powerful segment management (including sharing with individual users), and segment stacking. These improvements to segmentation have allowed users of Adobe Analytics to learn about their customers more quickly and effectively than ever before—and not just in part of Adobe Analytics, but in all of it. But we knew weren’t done, and this week we added two exciting new capabilities to Reports & Analytics inside of Adobe Analytics.

Segmentation in Anomaly Detection
Anomaly Detection, which we added to Reports & Analytics in October 2013, gives you the ability to assess the statistical significance of changes in trend across any of your key metrics and KPIs; for example, this makes it easy to understand whether it’s worth looking into a change in average order value. Anomaly Detection highlights every instance where a KPI moves outside an expected range (based on historical trends for that metric); as such, it serves as a jumping-off point for on-the-spot analysis by telling you where you might get started. With this release, the Anomaly Detection tool now supports segmentation, which means that you can perform these assessments of anomalous metrics and KPIs for your most important visitor or content segments.

You can apply a segment to the Anomaly Detection report just as you do elsewhere in Reports & Analytics. In the screen shot below, I am adding a simple First-Time Visits segment to the anomaly view that I have on the right.

Once I apply the segment, the set of detected anomalies—the metrics in this case are simple: Page Views and Visits, but it could be anything—is detected for just the segment(s) that I apply. (The “(s)” is to remind you that you can now apply multiple segments to a report at the same time, and this is also true of Anomaly Detection.)

If you haven’t used Anomaly Detection, give it a try today, and see how different visitor segments are impacting your KPIs in statistically significant ways!

Create Segment from Fallout Path
One of the coolest time-saving features in Ad Hoc Analysis is the ability to create a Fallout report and then, with a single click, turn that specific fallout path into a sequential segment. Once you find a path that matters to you, and you see how users are falling out as they move through that path, you may want to learn more about who these visitors are. By turning the fallout path into a segment, you’ll be able to go to other parts of the tool—geography reporting, campaigns, etc.—and easily focus in on users who followed the path that you defined.

I am pleased to announce that this capability is now available on the web in Reports & Analytics as well:

When you click this link in the report header, you are taken immediately to the segment builder. We will automatically configure containers for the checkpoints you defined in the Fallout report, and add a sequential “THEN” operator to ensure that visitors who match the segment completed the checkpoints in the order you specified.

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/fallout_segment_02.png

Of course, you can make changes to the segment once you are in the segment builder, or you can save it as-is. Then you are ready to apply this path-based segment elsewhere in Reports & Analytics, Ad Hoc Analysis, or Report Builder.

Next
It has been great to hear success stories from many of you as you have started using advanced segmentation capabilities in Adobe Analytics over the past couple of months, and I would encourage you to share your feedback in the comments on this blog. With this week’s update, these two additions to segmentation in Adobe Analytics allow you to go even farther in your quest to understand your customers/visitors/users more fully, and I expect even better stories in the future! As for us, we will continue to invest in segmentation—the most important arrow in the digital marketer’s quiver—to aid in that journey.

Happy segmenting!